Aid volunteer cited in littering
By Stephanie Innes
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 02.23.2008

An immigrant-aid volunteer is facing a $175 fine for leaving water jugs in the desert for illegal entrants.

Daniel Millis, 28, was cited for littering Friday by a Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge law enforcement officer.

He said he'd left 22 water jugs in the desert and told a refuge officer where they were located.

Millis said the officer was planning to go get them. The officer seized another eight jugs he had with him, Millis said.

Millis and three other volunteers with the Tucson-based No More Deaths organization had been placing 1-gallon plastic water jugs on a trail in the refuge, which is known to be heavily traveled by migrants who are illegally crossing into the U.S. from Mexico on foot.

Ironically, Millis said, he was also picking up trash while he worked.
No More Deaths regularly helps illegal entrants by offering them food, water and medical aid. They say their purpose is to eliminate the annual toll of people who die in Arizona's borderlands while trying to make the illegal trek into the U.S.

The federal citation from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service amounts to a $150 fine, and a $25 processing fee. If he doesn't pay, Millis said, he's facing six months of jail time or a $5,000 penalty.

Officials with the wildlife refuge, which is about 60 miles southwest of Tucson, say they have an enormous problem with trash, caused mainly by the illegal entrants who regularly travel through, and it's imperative they enforce littering laws.

"Littering is illegal," acting refuge manager Sally Gall said. "I understand the humanitarian group was trying to do what they think is good for immigrants. But at the same time we have a big trash problem, and the immigrants are contributing to it."

"At the worst of times, we have 5 to 10 pounds of trash per immigrant coming through, and at one point we had 2,000 people per day coming through," she said.

"We have football-field-size areas of trash that are just piled continually, and we are trying to clean them up."

Bill Walker, a lawyer for No More Deaths, said he hopes the whole incident was a misunderstanding. "Our people are a net asset, as opposed to a detraction, for the refuge," he said.

But Gall stressed that even though the volunteers were picking up trash, plastic jugs like the ones Millis was leaving are a particular problem for wildlife.

Cattle and other wildlife can ingest the bottles and die. Other wildlife have cut themselves on lids from tin cans and other pieces of trash left in the refuge, Gall said.

"We know it's been happening; it's just a matter of catching them doing it," she said. "They cannot leave things behind. And there are other sources of water through the valley. … It's kind of a controversial issue."
Gall said the Tucson group Humane Borders has permits to have two of its 65-gallon water tanks, which are for illegal entrants, on refuge property. A third water station is on a piece of county property in the refuge area, she said.

She added that the special-use permits for those stations were issued when the refuge was under different management.

Millis said the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge confiscated all the water Millis and other No More Deaths volunteers had been planning to leave in Brown Canyon, which is about 20 miles north of Sasabe.
He said one officer also photographed the volunteers and their vehicle.
"Two of the volunteers tried to appeal to his humanity. We were actually picking up water and trying to help people who are dying of thirst," Millis said.

Millis, a Spanish teacher now working with No More Deaths as a full-time volunteer, said he is upset that he could be punished in the course of offering help.

He said he was particularly motivated to offer aid in the desert Friday after finding the body of a 14-year-old girl this week.

Millis and another volunteer were working Wednesday with No More Deaths near Arivaca, which is near Buenos Aires, when they discovered the body of Joseline Hernandez Quintero.

The Pima County Medical Examiner's Office said Joseline, a native of El Salvador, died of exposure.

The local group Derechos Humanos said Joseline, who was barely 100 pounds, had been missing since Jan. 31 when she was left behind by a group of illegal entrants, including her 10-year-old brother, traveling across the desert.

They'd been traveling for three days, and Joseline reportedly couldn't keep up. She'd been hoping to reunite with relatives in the United States.
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